The Mexico manager Miguel Herrera demanded that the Portuguese referee Pedro Proença should be sent home after he gave Arjen Robben an “invented” penalty that put Holland through to the quarter-finals. Herrera insisted the referee was responsible for his team’s exit, questioned why a European official was taking charge of a game involving a European team and insisted that his side had suffered “disastrous” officiating in three of their four World Cup games.

Herrera described Robben’s last-minute tumble as his “third dive” of the game and said that the referee could have prevented that from even happening by booking him for one of the previous two. Robben reportedly said that the referee was right to give the penalty but admitted that the first fall was a dive and apologised for it, calling it “awful and stupid”.

Herrera said: “The penalty was invented. I hope the referees’ committee looks at the decision and that he, like us, goes home. We’re leaving [the World Cup] because of the fact that the decision to stay was not in our hands. If they have a conscience, he should not take charge of another game at the World Cup.”

Herrera said that his team had been victims throughout the tournament. “In three of the four games, the refereeing has been disastrous,” he said. “In four games, three of them had tendentious refereeing. Against Cameroon we were denied two goals, there were two penalties in the same move [denied] against Croatia, and today he conditioned the game all the way through with favours [to Holland] and then he invented a penalty that was so big.

“Every doubtful decision went against Mexico. There were three dives [from Robben]. He had to be booked. You can play the advantage, good, but then the difference between a good referee and an average one is the good one goes back and books him. If he dives again he gets sent off. He now knows he is not going to try it again.

“In 2006, a great goal from Argentina’s Maxi Rodríguez knocked Mexico out. That can happen and if it does, so be it. That’s football. But today was not a great goal; today was a bad refereeing decision that knocked us out. I hope the referee goes home too. We’re leaving because the decision to stay was not in our hands. The most decisive factor today has been the man with the whistle.”